Interview with author Cygne duLac…
[Today’s guest is Cygne duLac, a widely acclaimed writer of romance novels. Without further ado, let’s listen to what she says.]
Cygne introduces herself…
SM: Why don’t you tell us about yourself?
CdL: Hello, Steve. Thank you for inviting me to your blog. I’d never considered being a professional writer. In school, I was more inclined toward math and the sciences. Being an ugly duckling, my mother drilled into my head that I wasn’t pretty enough to attract a husband, so I focused on my academics. But a funny thing happened just before high school graduation that changed the direction of my life. A studious boy named Hank invited me to the prom. It was love at first sight, but we both had four years of college ahead of us and at different schools. We wrote weekly, sometimes more often because we rarely saw each other. I had summer jobs in our hometown, but Hank worked in his uncle’s artificial insemination business upstate.
Hank pushed me to get married the Saturday after graduation. Not wanting to lose him, I agreed. My career plans took a major turn when I got pregnant on the honeymoon. After the baby was born, I wasn’t about to put the nurturing of this child I’d assumed I thought I’d never have in strangers’ hands. So, my career switched abruptly to homemaker. The two other children who arrived in the first five years of our marriage sealed my fate to that of a housewife until the children were grown.
SM: So, you started writing after your children were out of the house?
CdL: Out for a good while. I never considered writing, even as a hobby, until Hank died a terrible death from cancer. About a month after his death, with all the activity that accompanied his funeral behind me, I was lonely. And afraid. No way was I going to dive into the dating pool after 30 years of marriage. I’d never be able to compete with the younger women.
SM: You’re selling yourself short there.
CdL: The problem is that I can’t imagine having feelings toward another man as I did for Hank. Nor can I imagine anyone else loving me as much as he did. It was our emotions that made our sex so great. So, I rechanneled my desires into writing fictional stories about the adventures of a woman much like myself except she’s beautiful and sophisticated. Writing at night serves to keep my mind occupied and protects me from considering things I’d regret later.
Cygne talks about reading and writing…
SM: Were you able to find a publisher for the first book you wrote?
CdL: That’s what surprised me the most. A friend loved my first book The Swan, as I nicknamed my heroine, so much so that she gave my manuscript to a friend of hers who is a literary agent. The agent took me on as a client and demanded I write other Swan books to make me more attractive to publishers. A small publisher gave me a tiny advance and I became a published author. Hank’s discipline in saving and investing a sizeable part of his salary gives me a comfortable living and the freedom to spend my time as I please.
SM: I’m going to shift gears a little now. What is your biggest problem in the writing process?
CdL: Setting, no question. We never traveled much outside the U.S., so I am limited in placing stories in a convincing way in exotic locations. I will soon be sailing on the QM2 to Iceland to drive the Ring Road. From there to Warnemude, Germany via a smaller ship, then on train to Bern, Switzerland to give some talks at English-speaking embassies. I will be conducting research for my next book all the while.
SM: Is writing something you need to do or want to do?
CdL: It’s tough to say. I didn’t make a conscious decision to write. Once a couple of months after Hank died, I sat down at my computer to see if the children had written me. Finding nothing, I opened up the word processor and started typing. When I had a few paragraphs on the screen, I stopped to read what I’d written. It was the start of a memoir, but it wasn’t mine. It was what mine would have been had I been pretty and born to a wealthy family. And, thus, the Swan series was begun. I enjoyed doing it so much I kept on writing.
SM: How much have your personal experiences or experiences influenced you creatively?
CdL: To a great extent, except they were the experiences I wanted to have had instead of those I did have. Because the Swan is much more confident in herself than I am, I give her freedoms I never gave myself. She is not promiscuous by any means but is more adventurous than I was, or am.
SM: How much of your creative ability do you think is innate and how much is learned?
CdL: All of whatever creativity I have is God given. I had to learn the writing conventions and other things related to the writing process.
SM: Who are your favorite authors? Whose writing inspires you the most and why?
CdL: I like Janet Evanovich. She gives Stephanie Blum the freedom to make mistakes and look foolish. She helps me to loosen up and not write buttoned-up characters. I find Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s books very inspirational. I could never have handled the murder of my baby like she did.
SM: What’s the last book to make you laugh? Cry?
CdL: Only Tim Sent Flowers by George Q. Kaplan made me laugh out loud at least once per chapter. I cried with Tookie after she came up dry so many times when she was trying to find a man to marry and have a daughter with in Finding Mr. Wrong. While I could never be as free with my body as Tookie is, I admire her for sticking to her standards and not looking at marriage as a way to solve all her problems as all too many young women do.
SM: Should writers read in their genre? Should they be avid readers?
CdL: It depends. If your aim is to write books that sell well and make you money, you most definitely want to be as familiar as you can be with the genre and subgenre you write in and be very clear about its conventions, being sure to not break them. As for me, I don’t like being confined to rigid constraints. My goal is to put into words what the good Lord gives me as best I can. I prefer to read what appeals to me, including books on American history. I find myself reading histories of locales I intend to model in books.
SM: Thanks, Cygne, for being so candid with your answers and your background. I’m sure readers loved reading them.
***
Rembrandt’s Angel. Speaking of romance, this is a recurrent theme in this mystery/thriller from Penmore Press as Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone tries to decide whether Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden will be husband #4. Their relationship is strengthened as he assists her in trying to recover the Rembrandt painting “An Angel with Titus’ Features” that was stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. The reader accompanies them around Europe and to South America as their pursuit uncovers an insidious conspiracy. Available in ebook format from Amazon and Smashwords and the latter’s affiliate retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc), and also in print on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it).
In libris libertas….
